We, online marketers, always talk about finding your niche or target market. One of the best ways to do so is through an understanding of human psychology and how people buy. Marketing to personality types will help you craft your website or media campaign effectively. This article details four main personality types and how they buy. Use this as a resource for how you want to position your product/services and brand. – WST

By: Ivan Strouchliak

We are all different. Some of us prefer to know every detail; others come to decisions in a matter of seconds. For you, authority may be the main deciding factor, while for others customer feedback is the main selling point. How do you know what your customer will respond to? This three-part series will explore how different kinds of customers approach their buying decisions based on their personality types, and how you can cater to what each type needs to know before they buy from you.

In this article I cover four main personality types. I will explain how those personality types view websites and make decisions, and how to craft a website to sell more effectively to each. This idea has been thoroughly explained and proved by FutureNow, owners of the marketing blog GrokDotCom.

Four Personality Types

No two people are identical. Everyone has talents, unique abilities and nasty hang-ups. There are, however, four personality types to which one can effectively market. Those personality types were tested over and again in design, copy writing and advertising, and experiments have proven that it is possible to raise conversion rates when these factors were applied appropriately. These personality types are not new, but were identified centuries ago.

Many of the great philosophers who have dabbled in theories about personality have identified four dominant temperaments. In 370 BC, Hippocrates identified them as Sanguine, Choleric, Phlegmatic, and Melancholic. Carl Jung (1875-1961) called them Feeler, Thinker, Sensor, and Intuitor. More recently, David Keirsey identified Idealists, Rationals, Guardians, and Artisans. – Waiting For Your Cat To Bark

A website can be an effective marketing hub, driving traffic and sales to your business. However, there is much more to a website than a fancy design. Search engine optimization and marketing are key points for any successful website as well as a comprehensive design that is well branded and easy to use. You need all of the above to maintain a successful business online.Many web designers do not know how to market the beautiful websites they create. So be careful when shopping for a web designer. – WST

By Ajay Prasad

Your online business is not a wild crazy idea, but a source of your income. Trust the right people to design your website. Your 17 year old nephew may be able to create your website or you can get a free one from several services…they might even be kind of pretty. In my research and experience, less than 2% of businesses that have websites have planted the seeds to online success. Many of them are your competitors.

The problem is web designers’ focus on the technical aspects of the site. They don’t have a clue how to build a website that makes you a ton of money, drives floods of traffic, and gets you top placement on search engines.

Why Do You Have a Website?

The reason you have a website for your business, no matter what business you are in, is you want to rake in bundles of cash. Maybe not now, but definitely later, it should be bringing returns on your investment.

Your Website is Like Your Business

Make sure that your web designer owns a successful online business and knows how to run it.

Your sole purpose in having a website should be to use it as a marketing and communications tool. It is not there to be pretty. It should not be there to win awards. It is there to make you money. Even if you have a better product or service than your competitor, the one who attracts more prospects and customers – wins! Being the best at marketing is all that matters.

Online Marketing Is Completely Different Than Marketing Offline

All of the tools, techniques, communication, etc. in the online world are different than those offline. A very common mistake is to think because it works offline you can just put it on your website! It’s important to realize the reader of offline copy thinks and processes information in a different way than someone reading online copy. What works offline may be a complete flop online.

They are two different worlds. For example, online marketing REQUIRES you to know how to get your site ranked high, very high, in the search engines like Google and Yahoo….so you routinely appear on the first page for the optimal search terms for your business.

Of course, this assumes you know how to find the optimal words for your business, your marketplace, your niche, etc. Just so you know, the “include all words” strategy has proven to be a total failure.

And, most designers and businesses do not know that SEO (search engine optimization) is not SEM (search engine marketing). If you do one and not the other, you will probably be very disappointed with your results.

Studies have shown that you need to be on the first page of search engine results to get enough people coming to your site. SEO and SEM are not optional for online success – they are mandatory!

This blog is dedicated to the business of online marketing and web success. We aim share quality and informative articles to help our readers surf through the maze of information. This article by By: Ivan Strouchliak covers all Search Engine Optimization aspects. He includes excellent information for both newbies and seasoned web developers and SEOs. Please read on.

Search Engine Optimization, Website Development and Search Engine SpidersDo you have some experience with HTML and web site development, but haven’t really gotten your feet wet with search engine optimization? Keep reading, because you’re in luck. In this article we’ll cover some of the more important aspects of SEO, focusing on the changes that you should find easiest to make to your web site. After you read this, you should know where to concentrate your efforts now and going forward.

Here is a clip from a current post by The Web Success Team on how to shape or change your website to reach higher performance.

“Do you find yourself staring at a screen and millions of websites with massive amounts of information not knowing what exactly will work for your company? You are not alone. As if running a business isn’t time consuming enough, re-developing a website to improve performance is a huge venture. Here are some tips to help you get started.”

It’s great to be reminded that branding your online business has the potential to keep your company running through the current recession. The Web Success Team found this article helpful:

So, here at SES Chicago, I keep hearing about a marketing practice I thought was dead – BRANDING. After all, aren’t conversions, ROI, data, analytics and landing page testing/optimization the name of the day?